48 



Eben Ehhender, the Moor Farmer. 



Vol. IX. 



the village during the winter, and he had 

 secured all the runnings from his own cattle 

 in a great tank. He now set to burning, in 

 close kilns, all the turf he had been able to 

 accumulate during the summer; and be- 

 tween these and the refuse of the few cattle 

 for which he had been able to find food, lie 

 was enabled to plough and manure some 

 twenty acres of land, which he sowed and 

 planted with the usual crops, accompanying 

 all the white crops with sown grass. To 

 complete his experiment, he had procured a 

 cask to carry out the runnings of his sta- 

 bles, &c. ; and having placed it on a cart, 

 and fitted it with a tail-box pierced with 

 holes, such as is used for watering streets 

 and roads, he, as a last operation, sprinkled 

 this liquor, so far as it would go, over the 

 ground that had been dressed with ashes, at 

 night, that no portion of it might be wasted 

 by the sun ; and so closed the labours of his 

 first spring. ' 



Science had not then disclosed to us what 

 is now known to be true, that the terms 

 good and bad land, as generally understood, 

 are expressions without meaning, as almost 

 every species of land requires some culture 

 to make it productive; and by suitable means 

 much may be made of almost any kind of 

 land. Neither was it then known, as it now 

 is, what are the precise ingredients neces- 

 sary to the production of the various crops, 

 and to which the soil is a mere matrix or 

 receiver; and that burned earth or lime, and 

 ammonia or the mmnings of stables and other 

 usual manures, contain many of those ingre 

 dients. But by instinct or accident, by rea 

 Eoning from what he had noticed, or heard, 

 or read, and perhaps so far experimenting 

 without much knowledge or expectation, 

 our friend had hit upon many things now 

 known to be useful, and the result surprised 

 many. Not only was there no failure in the 

 crops of Glen-Eden, — as they now began 

 seriously to call it, — but they were rich and 

 beautiful. The oats, standing upon moss of 

 great depth, but drained — and that but for 

 the draining and manure, would not have 

 borne a green leaf— were as luxuriant as if 

 the depth of the moss had been tjie cause of 

 their excellence. The other soils, lately so 

 thin and dead, were now deep and dry, and 

 bearing excellent barley, with a flush of 

 clover about its roots. Potatoes, the gift of 

 a warm and distant region, were flourishing 

 in their little beds on this lately cold and 

 barren moor, as if it had been their native 

 and appropriate soil; and, in short, industry 

 and intelligence had in a few months tri- 

 umphed over the ignorance and neglect of 

 centuries. 



'Till these things became apparent, how 



ever, our experimenter kept in the shade. 

 He had dismissed all his workers, except his 

 hind, whom he termed his "resident man- 

 ager," and his wife, who was his sole serv- 

 ant, and a Gibeonite of a boy, for looking 

 after his sheep. As the crops began to 

 show themselves, his hind urged upon him 

 the beauty of their appearance, and the al- 

 most certain success of his experiment, and 

 consequently the duty of resuming opera- 

 tions. According to all appearances, his 

 first crop would more than pay the expense 

 that would give him a permanent and valu- 

 able posse^:slon ; and as Eben inclined to this 

 opinion, he determined to resume. As a 

 proper preparative to this, he allowed hia 

 mother and sisters to visit him ; and though 

 they were shocked with the outward aspect 

 of his residence, a black and cheerless look- 

 ing turf-hut, in the midst of a comparative 

 wild, and guarded by a pet sheep and her 

 lambs, that, as they approached, patted the 

 ground in a very menacing manner, yet 

 when they entered it, and found the servant 

 cheerfully preparing for them a meal in the 

 one end, while in the other was a little par- 

 lor such as a gentleman might inhabit with 

 rest and enjoyment, they were not only sur- 

 prised and pleased, but would gladly have 

 protracted their visit, and were delighted to 

 understand that they were speedily to join 

 him. 



Of course, from greater experience he 

 rose to greater success. Even his labourers 

 worked more cheerfully from seeing the 

 success of what had been done. Moss that 

 had hitherto seemed a nuisance, was to him 

 a treasure, and husbanded accordingly; and 

 stones that, above ground, were such an en- 

 cumbrance, were, when placed in drains 

 beneath it, of the utmost value. He became 

 perfectly happy in his labour of improving, 

 and almost regretted to think that one day 

 it must have an end. Thirty years have 

 passed since these operations were begun ; 

 the barren moor has been reclaimed into a 

 valuable and productive farm: the once bare 

 and rugged banks that impeded its draining 

 have long been turned into boundaries co- 

 vered with herbage of the softest texture, 

 and crowned with woods at once an orna- 

 ment and a shelter, and that being to be 

 paid for, will render their owner rich. Even 

 tlie deep and unsightly pool, that first as- 

 sisted in laying the land dry, has been sur- 

 rounded and screened by willows and 

 alders, both useful in their way; and the 

 numbers of ducks and geese constantly 

 breeding on its borders and floating on its 

 bosom, must add no inconsiderable item to 

 the profits of the farm. Where the first 

 damp and disheartening turf-shed was erect- 



